FROM THIS EPISODE

George Zimmerman used a gun to kill Trayvon Martin and the jury said he acted in self-defense. But, despite permissive new laws on gun use in many states, fewer and fewer American households have guns. With crime going down, does that mean gun control might have a future? Also, Edward Snowden asks Russia for asylum, and in a major victory for Mexico's new President, the vicious enforcer for a drug cartel has been captured. We talk with a reporter who once thought he was a target for the Zetas.

Banner image: George Zimmerman leaves court with his family after Zimmerman's not guilty verdict was read in Seminole Circuit Court in Sanford, Florida, July 13, 2013. Photo: VOA

Edward Snowden, the fugitive leaker of secrets about the National Security Agency, says he could face torture or the death penalty if he's extradited to the United States. That's according to an official who says Snowden has officially applied for asylum in Russia. David Herszenhorn, who reports from Moscow for the New York Times, has more on the story.

George Zimmerman is hardly the only American who owns a gun, and gun sales increase with every high profile shooting. "Stand Your Ground" laws in Florida and 24 other states protect more killers who use guns with increasingly broad definitions of "self-defense." But there's a paradox. The share of American households with guns has dropped like a stone, declining from 50 percent in the 1970's to 34 percent in 2012. Is there a chance that gun control could make a political comeback?

Mexico's new President, Enrique Peña Nieto, promised a new strategy in the war against brutal drug gangs, and today he scored a major victory. The Zeta's enforcer and leader, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, who once said he'd rather be captured dead than alive, was taken into custody yesterday without a shot being fired. Alfredo Corchado is Mexico Bureau Chief for the Dallas Morning News and author of Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness.